I've had a rotten bunch of days, I need a fun distraction. I'm curious, is there something from your childhood that you do with your kids that just screams summer to you? Something beyond the usual, no shoes, going swimming, etc. The one thing on your bucket list that is an absolute defining feature of summer?
It's berry picking time in my house....As a child, we grew up across the street from a field that had tons of black raspberry bushes. During berry season, we had fresh pie for breakfast! Three years ago, I began the same tradition with my kids. I have two great little berry pickers. My husband actually commented on it the other day --he hates picking berries--, and he decided that they work so hard because the payout is so good. I make really good pie. It's one of the few things that I truly do well, and black raspberry pie is one of my absolutely most favorite things in the whole world. It may actually come after my love for my family!
What just screams summer to you? (besides those damn mosquitoes!)
Hazel, my daughter SWEARS she saw a rolly polly bug give birth today! The three year old came inside yelling his little head off about it. But I'm with you, the garden, the flowers, the veggies...the bugs. The outdoors and its wonderful fruits. I love to garden.
I wish I could say beach sand, but we only have that problem for about a week a year....
Even in January, the smell if sunscreen instantly transports me to summer.
But it's not REALLY summer until I see the ocean in person (!) camp out in a nice beach chair, head shaded by umbrella, and have a great book, and nearby drink!
Oh! And local carnivals.
And amusement parks....
And a funnel cake!
I wish I could go horseback riding in the mountains with my DD. I spent my childhood summers riding, mostly with my cousin and grandpa, but that was summer to us.
Other than that, camping, s'mores, spending time in a lake either boating or fishing.
We also used to go huckleberry picking. Just a side note... Huckleberry banana bread is awesome! ;)
The smell of sunscreen.
Warm sun kissed skin after laying on the cement next to our pool to warm up after a cool,refreshing dip.
The smell of wet cement as I am laying on the pool deck after a swim.
The veggies out of our summer garden.
The smell of fresh cut grass as the lawn needs constant mowing during the summer.
Chalk drawings on the sidewalk.
I was on a swim team growing up. Now our kids are on a summer swim team. Summer=swim team time in our home.
Dangit..you asked for one big one....I guess our summer is just made up of a bunch of little "essences". I just soooooo look forward to having our kids home...on our schedule...lots of relaxing family time.
It's really kind of silly and has nothing to do with my kids but when I hear Don Henley sing "Boys of Summer", that is my ultimate essence of summer and I always always always turn it up and sing my heart out. Maybe reminds me of my teen years :-)
I best love experiencing summer in the garden; it's predictable enough to be reliable, but there are always those "look what came up here!" sorts of surprises as well. To me, summer is epitomized by very ripe, delicious tomatoes ,the zinnias which my neighbors seem to love, and too many berries and flowers to list. :) Sharing with others from the garden, we make connections. It's great.
The family camping trip, for better or worse-- it always adds something to summer.
Surf carnivals with the smell of the fundraising BBQ cooking the steak sandwiches. Watermelon and cherries.
As a mom? Going to the pool and/or the beach. The smell of salt and chlorine and sunscreen, the feeling of water and sand. That pretty much sums it up!
As a kid, well, I grew up mostly in rural Iowa, so for me summer was all about freedom, running through, and playing hide and seek in, tall grass. Catching lightning bugs and saving them in jars at dusk, 9 PM. Picking violets and making mud pies. Riding bikes, jumping rope and roller skating to my heart's content. Collecting soda bottles and cans along the street and in the neighborhood and returning them for credit at the store, usually enough to buy a candy bar or a push pop.
Thinking about my own childhood makes me a little sad for my kids. Even though my situation and family was highly dysfunctional my every day experiences were not, they were actually pretty awesome, and rare nowadays.
Beach sand in the car, in the laundry room, in the kitchen, and the bathroom showers. And empty sunblock bottles.
Sitting on the porch, eating watermelon, spitting out the seeds. (Seedless watermelon is for wusses!! ;)
Fun question!!!
Washing the car/van in the driveway, complete with garden hose and bucket full of soapy, bubbly water. Bathing suits a bonus. No holds barred. Kids clean whatever they can reach. Haven't managed yet this summer, but it's on the list.
And finding the most surprising summer bug - this year, huge beetles that are shimmery gold and green.
Happy summer! The description of your pies is making me drool. =)
We go strawberry, raspberry and Saskatoon picking each summer, and sometimes blueberry if we are going to Ontario.
For me reading on the beach and drinking beer around the campfire define summer.
A little bit of beach sand in the car.
Blueberry pie (we have berry bushes in the back yard).
Running to catch the ice cream truck.
Love it, what a great question.
Definitely the smell of sunscreen. Gosh, ya get a whiff of that in the dead of winter and it almost makes you feel like it *could* be summer ;).
Also, the sound of boats and watercraft humming in the background and the smell of gasoline. We spent a lot of time waterskiing and boating when I was a kid!
Every year we spend a week at Bear Lake in Utah. It is a beautiful turquoise lake surrounded by mountains and my grandpa has a summer home right on the beach that we rent out. I spent every summer of my childhood there, so it feels like home and make me and my family so so happy. I always get back and think "What can I do in my day-to-day life that can bring me the same happiness I have there?!" Bear Lake in the summer is my essence of summer!
I do not know why, there's no songs about "summer" that I can think of, but music from The Pretenders makes me feel like a long ago middle-school summer. The kinda coconutty smell of Hawaiian Tropics tanning lotion. Messy messy fruits that we always ate outdoors: big awesome juicy peaches, popping cherries straight from grandma's tree to our mouths, SEED watermelons (I purposely seek those out and refuse to buy seedless unless just desperate). I have visions of being in grandma's backyard with the other 8 grandchildren, running around playing kickball, cupball (baseball with your hand and a couple papercups scrunched together, so we didn't knock out a window or damage a car), boys against girls ANYTHING, grandpa making the best bbq chicken I've ever tasted, grandma's homemade peach ice cream and trying to sneak in to steal a finger scoop before it was ready, sprinkler play, laying in one of those tiny plastic kiddie pools with cousins and eating watermelon right off the rind in big long slices, right there in the pool, road trips, and Gulf Shores / Pensacola beach and the smell that wakes you up from the trip about 10 minutes before you get a glimpse of the water...mom would drive with the windows down and we'd nap.....and then the salty air would wake us up squealing with delight. Magnolia trees and books also come to mind when I think of summer. Fireworks! 4th of July was a big party at grandma's house, and lots of fun to be had as my favorite uncle dazzled us with a show. Those big family get togethers are long gone now, many died and others divorced and faded away after Grandma died---she's kinda what held the whole family together. Now it's just the 4 of us, with a VERY occasional event once a year if we're lucky where we can add my brother's family and maybe my mom to the mix. But those days were pretty grand....wonderful summers!
Great question & I love reading everyone's answers!
-the smell of fresh pine after a long 7 hr. drive north
-the smell of sunscreen
-fish flies
-fried perch
-iced tea
-cherry ice cream
-watermelon & cherries
-swimming in the lake
I enjoyed reading your question! My kids are grown now, so it's very different for me. I certainly enjoy my memories of when they were little. Now summer is about beach and eating crab and kicking back more than during the school year. One more year of school (not counting college) and I'm done with that. But now, summer is more about not being in school (and making sure we get beach time and crab!)
When your kids grow up, these are wonderful memories you are making!! Enjoy them while your kids are little!
Catching bugs, going barefoot, homegrown tomatoes, watching the Perseid meteor shower in August.
tongue dyed red from Mario's cherry ice cups.
the smell of salt water in my hair, sea salt crusted sweaty sunburned skin.
jump rope.
fire flies.
standing in front of the freezer case in the supermarket with the door open for as long as you dared before the shopkeep would yell at you.
grilled corn on the cob with the husks still on.
distorted air, as heat and fumes got thick with weekend car traffic waiting for tolls.
calomine lotion stored in the fridge.
the lake
the smell of pine needles after a rain
Berryweis bier
fresh cherries
the smell of chlorine from the pool
stepping on wet towels everywhere
wet dogs
fresh cut grass
charcoal grill
bonfires & smores
lightning bugs
I guess the smell of summer is very prevalent
Gardening and the smell of grass,pool and bubbles, barbecue smell, and swimsuits/towels hung up in the laundry room....
